Reinvigorated After 44-7 Win over Oregon State, Cal Eager For More

Now 4-4 overall, the Bears have a bye before trekking to Wake Forest in search of their first ACC victory

Jaivian Thomas / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

The last-place team in the Atlantic Coast Conference is ready to take on all comers.

That was the mood of Cal’s players after their 44-7 rout of former Pac-12 rival Oregon State on Saturday afternoon.

The victory snapped a streak of four consecutive ACC defeats by the paper-thin combined margin of nine points, sending the Bears into a bye week with renewed optimism.

Cal is 4-4 overall but 0-4 in its new conference, the only team among 17 without a win in league play. The Bears’ next game is a week from Friday on the road against Wake Forest (4-4, 2-2), which escaped with a 27-24 win at Stanford on Saturday.

“Coach Wilcox talks about we’re trying to take down the dam,” quarterback Fernando Mendoza said. “Ironically enough, because beavers build dams, we broke the dam today.

"It was those four close (losses) . . . We were playing so much good football — it was so frustrating. However, now that we’re finally able to not just talk the talk but walk the walk, we’re going to have great momentum into our last four games and they’re all great, formidable opponents but we believe in ourselves.”

Although buried at the bottom of the ACC standings, the Bears have some numbers which lend credence to the notion they are better than that 0-4 record suggests.

Nine other teams actually have a worse point differential in ACC action than the Bears’ minus-9 figure. Stanford has allowed twice as many points as it’s scored, Florida State is 1-6 and minus-84, and four teams with at least two conference victories have larger points for/against disparities than the Bears.

Cal’s problem was making just enough mistakes to keep losing close ones. Had that become an obstacle?

Justin Wilcox said the theme Friday night during the team’s pre-game visit was confidence.

“It’s amazing the psychology of sports and how one play can really affect the psyche of a player or a team or an entire football community,” he said. “We’ve had some really difficult, frustrating, kind of agonizing losses and I’m really proud of the guys for coming out and playing confident, believing in themselves and committing to playing good football.

“After four tough losses like that, there are people out there who would crumble.”

Fernando Mendoza scrambles for yardage / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Asked about getting back to 4-4 overall, Mendoza said he can’t really relate to the record.

“I don’t think anybody on the team believes we’re a 4-4 team,” he said. “We look at the top teams in the nation . .  and we can compete against those guys and we can beat those guys. 

“We’ve shown we have he capacity to do it. When we play good football, we’re able to demolish opponents. When we play great football, which we’re not at that level yet, it’s going to be no contest.”

OK, so the Bears were feel pretty good about themselves after winning by 37 points against a team that had won four of the previous meetings in the series.

Here’s a breakdown of what they did:

OFFENSE: The Bears assembled their highest point total of the season, ran up 478 yards of offense, converted 8 of 15 third- and fourth-down chances and scored on all eight trips into the red zone. 

An offensive line dealing with injuries and inexperienced replacements allowed no sacks for the first time all season, allowing Mendoza to pass for a career-high 364 yards with two touchdowns. Over the past three games, he is completing 73 percent of his attempts for an average of 306 yards per game without a turnover.

The run game still needs work, but Jaydn Ott returned after missing two games to contributed 69 rushing and receiving yards and should benefit from the bye week.

DEFENSE: The Bears pitched a shutout until 5 minutes left, held the Beavers to 135 total yards through three quarters and limited the nation’s No. 7 rushing offense to 60 yards on the ground, by far its lowest output of the season.

OSU was 1 for 12 on third-down conversions and reached the red zone just twice all day. Cal’s defense forced two more turnovers, improving its season turnover margin to plus-13, which ranks No. 2 nationally.

“Since Day 1, we have strived to strike fear into our opponents,” outside linebacker Xavier Carlton said after the Bears held their sixth opponent to 17 points or fewer. “You saw today, Oregon State coming off the sidelines over and over again, every three-and-out, they did not want to come out here.”

SPECIAL TEAMS: Freshman kicker Derek Morris put behind him the missed 28-yard field goal that could have won the North Carolina State game a week ago. He responded with a 5-for-5 effort on field goals, tying a program record, and added a 3-for-3 day on PATs, giving him 18 points.

Wilcox’s only complaint: He’d prefer to score a few more touchdowns and not quite as many field goals.

The bye week will give the injured players time to heal before the final four-game sprint to the finish. Cal needs two more wins to become bowl eligible and could be favored in three of the four.

“The way we dominated today, that gives us confidence going into our next opponent,’ sixth-year senior safety Craig Woodson said. “When we’re playing at our capacity, we can beat anybody in the fashion we did today.”